Elemental Workshop Pt 3 First Half
Entry posted by Merch Gwyar
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Normally I'm thoroughly excited about a new quest. But this afternoon, I was working on registering Canting members at Runehead (they accepted us) and that was turning into a quest all of its own. I'll talk about that in another blog. Really, I only went onto Runescape because I was parked at Trollheim herb patch and it had been well over 72 mins since I last logged on. I did so and there it was, 'Elemental Workshop Pt 3'. Instead of wooting, I glanced with a sinking heart at my list. Like a good, little Virgo, I do enjoy creating a good list. But here was a quest. List, quest, list, quest. It wouldn't have been any competition if it was anything but 'Elemental Workshop', but I can't remember being overly excited by that storyline in the past. I planted my herbs and chose the list.
I came back a little later and decided to just get the quest out of the way. In Seers' Bank, I grabbed my default quest kit: black dhide, bow, arrows, anti-poison, couple of noms, Rogue's Kit and, remembering previous quests in this line, a knife. All around me people were screaming to buy soft clay. Taking the hint, I nipped home to Yanille and went to mine some clay just outside the gates. All prepared and ready, I returned, spoke to Geoffrey for my daily flax, then meandered into the church. I found the ragged book and looked around for an NPC to talk to. Nothing. I used my knife on the book. Nothing. I read the book. Quest began.
It wasn't rocket science to work out how to make the key. Even the quest opening screen told me that I needed to kill a level 35 earth elemental and take some coal. The big clue was right there that I was going to need elemental ore. I wandered down to the elemental workshop, then pwned an elemental with rune arrows. Overkill ftw! The book had dropped huge hints about the front cover being 'the key', plus I had that overheard conversation about soft clay. I used my soft clay on the front of the book to get the mould. I drew on lvl 82 crafting knowledge and used the elemental bar on the furnace with a key mould in my hand. Voila! La key! I read my book thoroughly three times. Lots of talk of primed elemental bars. I went and made one of them.
Now what.
This is something that I really dislike about this quest. It's not at all intuitive. There's no real storyline. Yes, I've found a book with blatant hints on key-making, then some blarb about animating servants made from body energy. Even if I hadn't read my Mary Shelley, I'd have that incident down in Morytania to make me wary of such things. But let's pretend that I'm an idiot; after all that's how most quests begin. You remove all common sense and intelligence, then set off on a journey. I suppose it's alright in a Tarot sense. We start that journey as the Fool. Sorry, side-tracked there. Anyway, I'm on my quest. I have my key. I remember the door downstairs that I strongly suspect is going to feature here. Key, door. Bit of a link there. But is that all?
I did what any experienced quester does. I started clicking on everything in the room in the hope of more clues and ensuring that nothing important is overlooked. Unfortunately, I'm in a room which has already held two quests. The anvil, just for an example, is still trying to guide me through Elemental Workshop Pt 2. In the end, I just gave up on the whole thing and went downstairs to check out the door. Unsurprisingly, it opened. I found the control room and inspected the slot. Looked like something flat could slot in there. Feeling very superior, I shoved in the primed elemental bar that I'd prepared earlier and yay the door opened. Inside was an inactive red button and not a lot else. A lever for opening and closing the door. Time to investigate downstairs.
It was the Nomad of puzzle quests. All of those twitch fighting questers, who sneered with smug glee over 'Nomad's Requiem', are now in the RSOF protesting loudly. It didn't take long for me to work out that I was looking at a giant sliding puzzle. My thoughts immediately went to Kayla, who hates these with a passion. But for myself, I was finally interested in this quest. I love sliding puzzles. I spent large portions of my childhood doing them. This was my sort of quest puzzle! Until I actually tried to do it that is. Note there was nothing telling me to do it. I was doing it in the same spirit as a small child sees a brightly coloured toy and makes grabby hands. It was there, so I started playing with it. This, of course, left me with no end game. What was I supposed to be doing here and why?
After a while of moving squares randomly around, I tried investigating the whole room, above and below, again. Nothing really to write home about. A half-scrawled diagram, which meant nothing. It really was back to, 'here's toy, go play'. I can has storyline, pl0x? A while longer of having no idea what I was supposed to be doing, I went into Canting. About half of the people there were doing the quest and were equally stumped by it. My moment of clarity came when I sussed that the levers push the squares. Now I knew how to use it, but no idea what was going on. H Alger solved the first puzzle. I even resorted to looking at the guide in progress here, but I was further along than Newb was at the time. I checked out the Runescape Wiki, but even the collective brainpower there only had the first puzzle solved. Nevertheless, I now had a picture to work towards. It was quickly solved too.
Real life kicked in, so it was a while before I was back. I quickly knocked out the second puzzle, then H Alger talked me through gaining infinite moves. (Link the 3 storey tower to the bottom left hole, then use another couple of baby blocks to link that to the bottom spinning generator thingie.) I knocked out number 3 solution, using the pictures now appearing on Runescape Wiki, then went abed.
Yesterday, I'd worked over an hour, so I decided to use it today. I'd do my Tears, finish the quest, then go to work. Ha! I did the fourth puzzle easily enough, but nothing happened. I checked my quest diary. It was still saying that I'd only done two puzzles. I reversed and did the third again. I kept getting the message that 'nothing interesting happened, maybe if it was powered first'. I'm still getting it.
I've tried this, this and this. All guides talk of the tower being lowered, but that hasn't happened for me. It's supposed to be unlocked by completion of the third puzzle. None of the guides in progress on any site, including our own and Runescape Wiki, are mentioning that message at all. I've appealed for help here and on the RSOF. I was told on the latter to repeat the first two puzzles. I did that, nothing. Others have given me advice that read like advanced level engineering manuals. Connect the driving cog to the middle height recepticle... what?!
So here I am. I've usually finished work by now and I haven't even started. I'm at the same puzzle as I was when I went to bed last night. I'm enjoying the sliding puzzle, but left utterly underwhelmed by the lack of intuitive narrative in the questline. I hate having to resort to guides, as that takes the fun out of quests; it's even worse when you a) don't understand the guides or b) the guide writers don't seem to have uncovered what you have. Part of me is wondering if I've missed out something vital or else there's some kind of glitch. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
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